[forznoles]

At Tuesday night's Sumter Co Board of County Commissioners meeting, talk of privatizing the local public library system has been approved for review. The Board will consider and vote on it soon. Essentially, the only company in the US (LSSI, Library Systems and Services out of Maryland) that does privatized public library systems would "take over" the operations of the Sumter Co library system. Library staff would be LSSI employees, and LSSI would do the operations. Does anyone think this is a good idea? Would you like a national company that has as its goal of making a profit to decide how many books and what books go into your local library? They would determine fees, fines, amount of services (and remember, they want to make a profit), who can get a library card (if you can't prove local residency, they may decide that you don't get a card!), what books are in what libraries and how many, etc. They can decide that the Belvedere library gets Dr. Spock's baby book, and the Lake Panasoffkee library gets large print books. Would a company that wants to make a profit would work with the local Sumter Co Friends of the Library? Why would we even have a Friends of the Library anymore? Wouldn't that be like having a bake sale for Exxon? If you have an opinion on this, please let your County Commissioner know in the next two weeks. The next Board meeting is in Bushnell, not locally in The Villages, on May 14th – if you have any concerns, it is encouraged that you to show up at this meeting or contact the Board in advance.